I’m a bit late on this, but “a source at IFC Films”, the American distributor for Lars von Trier’s latest (and, by most accounts, gnarliest) film, Antichrist, insists that the film will be released in American theaters in roughly the same form as when it made its now-infamous international debut earlier this summer at Cannes. It seems like everyone and their mother is aware of some of Antichrist‘s grosser (and more affect-loaded) moments by now, but it’ll be really interesting to see how the film will be received upon its release here, the country where audiences recently squirmed themselves into knots of outrage in response to Michael Haneke’s Funny Games remake and yet turned out in droves to see Saw 5 (or whichever number they’re up to now). Moreover, it’ll be interesting to see if Antichrist ever makes its way here to Madison (where it would play, I know not); I imagine that images of genital mutilation, no matter how stylized or pregnant with symbolic significance (like the razor-blade and eyeball duet at the beginning of Un chien andalou), may be a tough sell out here. Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to thumb through an official Cannes program, and the stills from Antichrist looked like really sticky, haunting stuff. Too often lost in all the controversy about the film’s disturbing elements is the fact that von Trier is one of the real termite artists working in cinema today; I, for one, will jump at the opportunity to see this film in its uncut form, though I certainly can’t promise that I won’t look away during a certain moment involving Willem Dafoe’s penis. And hopefully, when I do see the film, I’ll be seeing it at a Madisonian theater.
Tags: Lars von Trier, Madison
August 4, 2009 at 4:38 am |
Like I told you before, Dan, and as many readers of this site would be interested to know, I would strongly recommend cinephiles look into the subscription option over at Four Star. For $18 a month, a subscriber is allowed to check out an unlimited number of films, up to 3 at any given time. The subscription also allows you to have an authorized renter on the account, so you could even split the deal (as I have done), with a friend. That’s 9 bucks a month to see as many films as you want. And it hardly needs to be said that Four Star’s selection is incredible, stocking every major film you would ever want to see. It’s one of the only places, for instance, that has an exhaustible foreign film section. Highly recommended!
August 4, 2009 at 6:05 pm |
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